Among Iron Maiden's studio albums 'Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son' to me is the second best. It has the most famous songs of the band on one album. Of most albums you might know (if you're not a fan!) two or three songs, this album contains at least 6 songs that you should know, if not you have never lived.

Talking about a very special limited edition here we go with disc one, the original studio album 'Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son', as mentioned above with the most famous tracks on it, because of being played live more often than other 'not so famous' songs on other albums. Everybody knows 'Moonchild' and 'Infinite Dreams', 'Can I Play With Madness' and 'The Evil That Men Do', 'The Clairvoyant' and maybe 'Only The Good Die Young'. All these make the albue outstanding and thus it should be considered as one of the best among all of Iron Maiden's records, which is quite hard to tell because they made so many great ones! To me it's number two in my personal ranking right behind 'Somewhere In Time'. If I had to decide which is my favorite track among these great songs I'd surely pick 'The Evil That Men Do', which makes my favorite Iron Maiden song together with 'Wasted Years', my all time favorite Maiden tunes. The title track is of epic length, close to ten minutes, and yes I know there have been longer songs recorded by Maiden, thinking of 'Rime Of The Ancient Mariner', but believe me 10 minutes is long enough on af album that runs only 44 minutes.

Summing it up, because telling it for each song in detail is quite hard because of a certain complexity, S.S.O.A.S.S. is much deeper in sound than other Maiden albums, the Keyboards and synthesizer effects create a deep atmosphere (i.e. Infinite Dreams, has a special sound that makes you think of real dreams in which feelings are mixed and pictures from different things flow into each other) and make it very diverse and special. This is already worth the full 10 points.

Now to the bonus disc:
Can I Play With Madness? Yes you can! I can gladly say that I'm the mad fan who bought all the rare (and of course official!) remastered limited edition double cd albums in 1995/96! Yes, bacause that way I got me an 88 minutes instead of 44 minutes 'Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son'. In fact disc 2 is quite an album itself consisting of 9 tracks, 4 studio and 5 live tracks. Yeeha, here's a tracklist for it:
01) Black Bart Blues
02) Massacre
03) Prowler '88
04) Charlotte The Harlot '88
05) Infinite Dreams (Live at Birmingham NEC '88)
06) The Clairvoyant (Live at Donington '88)
07) The Prisoner (Live at Donington '88)
08) Killers (Live at Birmingham NEC '88)
09) Still Life (Live at Birmingham NEC '88)
Track one is an overlenght, but not too good track made for the purpose of being funny, a bit of music ' The black bart blues' and lots of blah blah… So the real album begins with song number two 'Massacre' a great cover of the Thin Lizzy original, next are the '88 versions of songs originally recorded with Paul Di'Anno, now with Bruce on the mic, really really nice. The five live tracks were all recorded during the tour to the 'S.S.O.A.S.S.' album, even featuring the rarely live played 'Still Life'. All live songs have an outstanding quality. This is already worth 10 points, but regarding the fact that it's only disc 2 that enhances a 10 points-worth album I'd say I'd have give it a 20/10! Haha…

You're probably wondering why I wrote a review of an almost twenty year old album; the answer is quite simple: because it is my absolute favourite album and one of the best Heavy-Metal-albums of all time. "Seventh Son..." was the last album that was recorded with Adrian Smith until 2000's "Brave New World." It's a concept album telling the story of a gifted child, a so called "seventh son of a seventh son," and how his gift carries with it many burdens and problems. The concept itself is not what carries the album but it adds a different touch to the lyrics and surely the music as well.

This is a masterpiece really! One of my favourite Maiden albums. Outstanding musicianship and creativity, no exaggeration here. Bruce's vocals "shine", it's one of his best vocal performances. I'm still enthusiastic about this album even after 16 years since i first listened to it!

Fear Of The Dark... this is the best maiden album, (in my opinion!!!).
But this is kickass too.

The only two albums I think get any worse than that are The X Factor and Vitual XI

Anyways, this is a great album, but for me not as good as Powerslave, Number of the Beast, or Somewhere in Time. The songs are just less memorable for me, although certain ones like Only the Good Die Young and the title track are standouts. Other than that a solid album the whole way through.

Fear Of The Dark... this is the best maiden album, (in my opinion!!!).
But this is kickass too.

The only two albums I think get any worse than that are The X Factor and Vitual XI

Anyways, this is a great album, but for me not as good as Powerslave, Number of the Beast, or Somewhere in Time. The songs are just less memorable for me, although certain ones like Only the Good Die Young and the title track are standouts. Other than that a solid album the whole way through.

Well, i agree that Virtua XI and X Factor are crappy, but fear of the dark... Is just Amazing! EVERY song is cool, and doesn't soundlike others maiden songs.

Fear Of The Dark... this is the best maiden album, (in my opinion!!!).
But this is kickass too.

The only two albums I think get any worse than that are The X Factor and Vitual XI

Anyways, this is a great album, but for me not as good as Powerslave, Number of the Beast, or Somewhere in Time. The songs are just less memorable for me, although certain ones like Only the Good Die Young and the title track are standouts. Other than that a solid album the whole way through.

Well, i agree that Virtua XI and X Factor are crappy, but fear of the dark... Is just Amazing! EVERY song is cool, and doesn't soundlike others maiden songs.

There's a couple good songs on Fear of the Dark, for me. The first and last are really all that "float my boat", so to speak. I do agree that no other Maiden album really sounds like it. I suppose it's kind of a matter of taste, it's just not among my favourite Maiden albums. Certainly doesn't compare to any of their 80's albums for me. It's not terrible, though.

Fear Of The Dark... this is the best maiden album, (in my opinion!!!).
But this is kickass too.

The only two albums I think get any worse than that are The X Factor and Vitual XI

Anyways, this is a great album, but for me not as good as Powerslave, Number of the Beast, or Somewhere in Time. The songs are just less memorable for me, although certain ones like Only the Good Die Young and the title track are standouts. Other than that a solid album the whole way through.

Well, i agree that Virtua XI and X Factor are crappy, but fear of the dark... Is just Amazing! EVERY song is cool, and doesn't soundlike others maiden songs.

There's a couple good songs on Fear of the Dark, for me. The first and last are really all that "float my boat", so to speak. I do agree that no other Maiden album really sounds like it. I suppose it's kind of a matter of taste, it's just not among my favourite Maiden albums. Certainly doesn't compare to any of their 80's albums for me. It's not terrible, though.

When you began to listen Iron Maiden? If you listen for a long time (80-90), "certainly" you will like more their old works. I listen Iron Maiden for only 2~1 year(s), so, its more likely i will be addicted to more modern songs!
But of course i like old Iron Maiden albuns!

When you began to listen Iron Maiden? If you listen for a long time (80-90), "certainly" you will like more their old works. I listen Iron Maiden for only 2~1 year(s), so, its more likely i will be addicted to more modern songs!
But of course i like old Iron Maiden albuns!

I started listening to them probably about 3 or 4 years ago. The first songs I heard were Number of the Beast and Aces High, and I always liked the 80's material best after that. A lot of bands I like their older stuff much more than newer (Metallica, Megadeth, Morbid Angel lol).

When you began to listen Iron Maiden? If you listen for a long time (80-90), "certainly" you will like more their old works. I listen Iron Maiden for only 2~1 year(s), so, its more likely i will be addicted to more modern songs!
But of course i like old Iron Maiden albuns!

I started listening to them probably about 3 or 4 years ago. The first songs I heard were Number of the Beast and Aces High, and I always liked the 80's material best after that. A lot of bands I like their older stuff much more than newer (Metallica, Megadeth, Morbid Angel lol).

I Like New stuff from older bands (Bathory). For tell the truth, I don't know what I like! I search for good songs, but the epic songs came in times that I am not searching.
Oh, and the first song that I've heard from maiden is (Wanna Guess?) Fear Of The Dark.

This was their first really shit album. There, I said it. Don't feel bad though - Iron Maiden are just one of several well-known metal bands who were huge in the 1980s but who seemed to lose their way come 1990 or so. This album (1988) led the charge into rubbishness.

I will add that till this point they had been one of my favourite bands and their output prior to this piece of crap still blows me away.

This was their first really shit album. There, I said it. Don't feel bad though - Iron Maiden are just one of several well-known metal bands who were huge in the 1980s but who seemed to lose their way come 1990 or so. This album (1988) led the charge into rubbishness.

I will add that till this point they had been one of my favourite bands and their output prior to this piece of crap still blows me away.

I would say their first shit album was Somewhere In Time, this one is better than that one, but after Seventh Son they have only released shit.